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IRList Digest Volume 3 Number 47
IRList Digest Thursday, 10 December 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 47
Today's Topics:
COGSCI - Mechanical design: meaning and representation
- Reasoning under uncertainty, Universal theories of defaults
CRTNET - Dissertation on paralanguage in electronic mail
News addresses are
Internet or CSNET: fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu
BITNET: foxea@vtvax3.bitnet
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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1987 12:05 EST
From: Peter de Jong <DEJONG%OZ.AI.MIT.EDU@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Cognitive Science Calendar [Extract - Ed]
Date: Sunday, 29 November 1987 15:07-EST
From: Paul Resnick <pr at ht.ai.mit.edu>
Re: AI Revolving Seminar; Allen Ward. NOTE UNUSUAL TIME
Thursday 3, December 4:45pm Room: NE43- 8th floor Playroom
The Artificial Intelligence Lab
Revolving Seminar Series
MECHANICAL DESIGN: MEANING AND REPRESENTATION
Allen Ward
Mechanical design has been much more resistant to automation than
digital design, or mechanical analysis and drafting. Artificial
intelligence methods offer both an explanation for and means to
partially resolve this problem.
Mechanical design programs, like all programs, work by changing
arrangements of symbols. These symbol arrangements can be
interpreted as representing sets of sequences of design and
manufacturing operations, or equivalently the sets of physical
artifacts those operations might produce. Mechanical design is hard
to automate because these sets are diverse; because the traditional
mathematical languages of engineers are unable to describe the sets
in the quantitative detail required; and because the reasoning
processes or design operations which change the symbol arrangements
have not been clearly defined.
I have developed languages for quantitatively representing
specifications and components in a limited domain, that of power
trains. I can use re-write rules to define a number of design
operations. These operations can select components from catalogs,
completing the design of power trains meeting an input set of
specifications.
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Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1987 12:31 EST
From: Peter de Jong <DEJONG%OZ.AI.MIT.EDU@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Cognitive Science Calendar [Extract - Ed]
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1987 16:11-EST
From: Marc Vilain <MVILAIN at G.BBN.COM>
Re: BBN AI/Education Seminar -- Andee Rubin
BBN Science Development Program
AI Seminar Series Lecture
REASONING UNDER UNCERTAINTY
Andee Rubin
Education Department, BBN Labs
RUBIN@G.BBN.COM
BBN Labs
10 Moulton Street
2nd floor large conference room
10:30 am, Tuesday December 8
Statistical reasoning is an important prerequisite for both ordinary and
scientific thinking. Yet statistical reasoning is seldom taught to
pre-college students, and when it is, the emphasis is often on formulaic
manipulation, rather than on the concepts that are the foundation of
reasoning about statistical matters.
To address these concerns, we have developed, with funding from the
National Science Foundation, a computer-enhanced curriculum in
statistical reasoning called Reasoning Under Uncertainty that
incorporates the ELASTIC (TM) software system. The course is designed to
help high school students develop statistical reasoning abilities by
using real world activities with which they have practical experience.
The ELASTIC (TM) software, implemented on a Macintosh computer, is a tool
for recording, representing, and manipulating statistical information.
It has standard capabilities such as the ability to represent different
types of variables and create appropriate graphs, including confidence
intervals. Its most experimental features are three interactive
programs: Stretchy Histograms, Sampler, and Shifty Lines, each of which
allows students to interact directly with statistical graphics in order
to achieve a deeper understanding of the underlying statistical
concepts.
The curriculum and software were field-tested in Belmont and Cambridge
High Schools in the spring of 1987. The talk will describe and
demonstrate the pedagogical principles underlying the course and
software, some results of the field test, and our plans for future
development.
==================
Date: Thursday, 3 December 1987 10:30-EST
From: Rosemary B. Hegg <ROSIE at XX.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Re: Jon Doyle seminar on 12/8/87
SEMINAR SEMINAR SEMINAR
DATE: Tuesday, December 8, 1987
TIME: Refreshments: 12:45PM
Lecture: 1:00PM
PLACE: NE43-8th floor playroom
ON UNIVERSAL THEORIES OF DEFAULTS
JON DOYLE
Department of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
ABSTRACT
Though unifications of some of the numerous theories of
default reasoning have been found, we bolster doubts about the
existence of universal theories by viewing default reasoning from the
standpoint of decision theory as a case of rational self-government of
inference. Default rules express not only methods for deriving new
conclusions from old, but also preferences among sets of possible
conclusions. Conflicting default rules, which form the central
difficulty in the theories, represent inconsistent preferences about
conclusions. These conflicting rules arise naturally in practice,
especially in databases representing the knowledge of several experts.
We formally compare these theories of rational inference with theories
of group decision making, and develop doubts about universal theories
of the former by considering well-known negative results about the
latter.
HOST: Prof. Peter Szolovits
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 87 12:01 EST
From: Tom Benson 814-238-5277 <T3B@PSUVM>
Subject: CRTNET 114 [Extract - Ed]
Date: Sun, 6-DEC-1987 12:38 EST
<contributor> Janet F. Asteroff <ASTEROFF@CUTCV1>
Subject: Computer-mediated Communication
. . .
I recently completed my dissertation on paralanguage in electronic
mail, the abstract of which is appended to this posting. I found,
among the 16 people I studied, many forms of "extra expression" in
the form of "paralanguage." Ultimately, I documented enough
differences between writing on the computer and writing through other
media to identify it as "electronic paralanguage" with its own formal
definition.
Many people believe that face-to-face communication is the richest
form of communication because of the variety of signals and channels,
and as well the potential for channel redundancy. I have no problem
with this assumption. I do, however, take issue with comparing other
forms of communication to face-to-face and then judging any other
medium as "information poor." Some scholars of computer-mediated
communication carry this negative frame of reference over to their
own work. While the computer may not provide as many channels as
face-to-face communication, and the channel itself may be somewhat
more limited, there is considerable research to indicate that
computer users have done some interesting things to convey their
meaning and message.
Since I am not a fan of clogging up bboards with long messages,
anyone interested in my work can contact me directly at
Asteroff@cutcv1.bitnet and I will be happy to send you more material.
The dissertation is also available through University Microfilms:
Janet F. Asteroff, "Paralanguage in Electronic Mail: A Case Study."
Teachers College, Columbia University, May, 1987.
/Janet
(Asteroff@cutcv1.bitnet)
ABSTRACT
PARALANGUAGE IN ELECTRONIC MAIL:
A CASE STUDY
Janet F. Asteroff
This study explores the use of paralanguage in electronic mail
communication. It examines the use of paralanguage according to the
electronic mail and computing experience and technical expertise of
16 library science graduate students who fall into two groups by rank
of experience, novice and advanced. These respondents used
electronic mail in a non-elective and task-related situation to
communicate with their instructor. This case study is based on a
multi-level qualitative content analysis of the electronic mail
exchanged between the respondents and the instructor, and the
attitudes and experiences of the respondents about their use of
electronic mail and computers. This research interprets the roles
and functions of paralanguage in computer-mediated communication and
explores the phenomenon as an indicator of certain kinds of
expression.
Paralanguage is a component of spoken, written, and electronic
communication. It gives to what is being communicated a character
over and above that which is necessary to convey meaning in the
linguistic or grammatical sense. Paralanguage in electronic mail is
positioned between spoken and written paralanguage in its visual and
interpretive structures. Electronic paralanguage, a term developed to
describe paralanguage in computer-mediated communication, is defined
as: features of written language which are used outside of formal
grammar and syntax, and other features related to but not part of
written language, which through varieties of visual and interpretive
contrast provide additional, enhanced, redundant or new meanings to
the message.
Electronic paralanguage is revealed to be a component of
communication which in some situations showed substantial differences
by the rank of the respondent, as well as differences in individual
behaviors. Novice respondents used more paralanguage in more types of
messages than did advanced respondents. Electronic paralanguage also
provides a robust picture of the character of communication. The use
of exclamation points by novice respondents in task-related messages
showed that electronic paralanguage can in certain cases be a general
measure of stress and experience, and as well is a precise indicator
of different kinds of positive and negative psychological stress.
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END OF IRList Digest
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